Finding practical ways of recycling consumer plastic waste, and then turning it into something useful is an ongoing project for Critical. The start-up, based in Tāmaki Makaurau, has developed a proprietary system for turning everything from fishing nets to packaging into sheets of durable plastic.
Now, Critical’s designer and founder Rui Peng has teamed up with chef Tom Hishon – of the very wonderful Kingi in Britomart – and LegaSea to raise funds for the organisation’s campaign against bottom trawling by creating a chopping board entirely made from post-consumer waste.
Bottom trawling has been practised in the Hauraki Gulf around Tāmaki for almost 100 years – it involves dragging fishing equipment along the seafloor, destroying marine ecosystems and reef structures, and capturing everything in its path. Under the proposed Hauraki Gulf Fisheries Plan, bottom trawling and scallop dredging will be allowed to continue in the area: something LegaSea wants to see changed.
Proceeds from sales of the chopping board will go towards LegaSea’s campaign, removing plastic from the environment at the same time. “There’s something very powerful,” Hishon says, “about how a simple chopping board made from fishing nets and other plastic waste can help to bring about change.”
The board is built to chef-grade standards: 50cm x 30cm, in three natural colour variations with nicely rounded corners and plastic stabilisers to the base. “It’s also,” as Hishon notes, “the perfect size for filleting too.”
Kingi chopping board
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